SPRINGFIELD—People who may not have realized they have property sitting at government entities will find out much earlier that their unclaimed property is with the state treasurer waiting to be claimed.

Senator Terry Link (D-Vernon Hills) has proposed legislation (SB 2783) that would require government entities to report unclaimed property as abandoned after five years instead of seven. This would allow the treasurer to receive the unclaimed property and attempt to alert someone to this nearly two years earlier.

“For some people it could be a paycheck that got returned to the entity. That would do more good in the hands of the person it belonged to instead of sitting in a vault somewhere,” said Link.

The legislation would bring government entities in line with private companies in needing to report any unclaimed property as abandoned after five years. After being reported as abandoned it is sent to the state treasurer’s office who maintains all unclaimed property.

If anyone believes they may have unclaimed property, they should go to icash.illinois.gov.